The Amazing Race 21 premiere had an actual footrace to the Pit Stop, and Rob and Sheila came out on the losing end — by 10 seconds. "If that," Rob tells TVGuide.com. "It was really close. It wasn't the outcome we wanted, but someone had to go and we were the one." The engaged lumberjacks were overtaken by the Chippendales (Jaymes and James) after each team labored to find a woman with an abacus on The Bund, a Shanghai waterfront. The couple probably would've been safe had Trey and Lexi not told the Chippendales where the clue was or if Gary and Will not lied to them about the clue. As it turns out, the three teams had an alliance, only for Gary and Will to renege on it. Would Rob and Sheila had done the same? Find out below.

Why were you walking to the Pit Stop? You had to have assumed someone was behind you.Rob: We had no idea the Chippendales were out there. We had been diverted two or three times and we had no idea who was left on The Bund. When we got to The Bund, there were all these teams bunched up, but slowly and surely they [found the woman with the abacus]. But we had no idea where she was because no one was being honest. We were not walking. We were hauling ass. When we found out where the Pit Stop was, we ran flat out. The only thing is I stopped because Sheila was carrying the water bottle and two books we were using for navigation. I told her to stop so we could put it away and we could start running again. It was about a half mile from where we were to the tower. We were not walking. We felt fairly comfortable. We couldn't have gone any faster than except when we stopped to reorganize.Sheila: We really only stopped when Rob took my backpack, but we were running. They just outran us in the end, just before we got to the signal tower.

What place did you think you were in?Sheila: Before we got to the Pit Stop, we had no idea.Rob: We didn't think we were last, but we didn't know. We had just left Gary and Will, who said they did not have the clue, but in fact they did and were heading to the Pit Stop. They told us to go the wrong way.Sheila: [Laughs] They lied!Rob: We got diverted by them. We only saw Gary and Will, and Lexi and Trey out there. The second time we bumped into Lexi and Trey, they had just been to the signal tower and were told where the clue was by people there, so they told us where the clue was. They took off running after they got the clue because they knew where the signal tower was. Sheila: And then they told the Chippendales!

Did you think you were safe when you got to the Pit Stop?Sheila: Once we saw Lexi and Trey, and Will and Gary there, we knew we were last because the Chippendales just outran us. We knew. It was really, really hard. We just had our heart set on doing the Race.Rob: We really believed that Will and Gary were still out searching since they told us they didn't have the clue.

Would you have done the same thing and lied?Rob: If we were to do it again, we'd help Will and Gary, and Lexi and Trey. We assisted other teams. There was a deal that was made and the deal was broken immediately.

You had an alliance?Rob: Yeah, with Lexi and Trey, and Will and Gary. Lexi and Trey were good to their word, but Will and Gary totally went back on it.

How much time did you waste at the Bank of China?Rob: Thirty-five minutes. There were three banks. When we looked at the map of The Bund, there were the banks and people told us to go to the Bank of China. People in the bank told us that absolutely the lady with the abacus was upstairs. We went upstairs and then ran to the other banks. A British man came up and said, "Oh, the lady with the abacus, I know where she is. She's a masonry detail on the back of one of these banks." [Laughs] So now we're looking at the side of the banks for the clue. After about 15 minutes of that crap, Sheila said, "Let's go to the waterfront."

You were literally standing right in front of the woman at one point.Sheila: Yeah. The most horrifying part is you always see people on The Amazing Race looking at something and not seeing it, and you're like, "What?! Can't they see it? They're idiots!" You watch it last night and it's like, "Oh my God! There she is!" I was looking right at her, but I truly couldn't see her. It's like you're so intent on finding her, it's crazy that I couldn't see her.Rob: It was right there in front of both of us. What you don't see is while we're standing there, there were two other teams diverting us. That's when Will and Gary totally screwed us. We really got screwed over. It was the worst timing. We bumped into them literally right there and they lied.Sheila: And here's the thing: They hated the Chippendales. They wanted them to lose, so I don't understand why they wouldn't tell us. If they wanted them out, shouldn't they tell us?

They probably didn't count on Trey and Lexi telling the Chippendales.Sheila: Exactly.Rob: I don't think they knew at that point when we saw them that the Chippendales were still out there. And I was so ready to race and do all these challenges. I was ready to conquer challenges, and we just played ping-pong with an 8-year-old and ate Fallopian tubes. Why couldn't they have us build a pyramid or something? Why couldn't we build a boat or swim a channel?

Or had a non-elimination leg?Sheila: That would've been nice!Rob: Yeah, but I kept waiting for a task where we had to do something and it never happened. They were just these silly little things.Sheila: He can say eating frog Fallopian tubes is a silly little thing, but let me tell you, it's not! It was disgusting!Rob: I know, but I wanted to scale a tower — things like that.

What are you up to now?Rob: We're heading to our hunting lodge in northern Wisconsin to spend a few days there. Then we gotta get back to being lumberjacks again. We do shows 365 days a year, one-to-three shows a day in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We had the same type of show in Alaska, but they just shut down.Sheila: In Pigeon Forge, you can get the dinner and the show, so more of that soon!

The Amazing Race kicked off its 21st cycle on Sunday night, and the 11 teams headed off to Shanghai, China. With two roadblocks to complete as well as several other clues to retrieve in between, it truly was a race against the clock to make it to the pit stop in one of the first 10 positions. Unfortunately for Rob Scheer and Sheila Castle, the engaged (and now married) lumberjacks, the delay they experienced in locating the final clue - as well as their willingness to follow misleading advice from another team - saw them come in last and become the first team to be eliminated from the show.

Rob and Sheila spoke to reporters on Monday about their experience in the competition and the lessons they learned while abroad.

You got lost looking for the woman with the abacus. Did you think you were onto something by going to the Bank of China?Rob: "We weren't lost! When we read the clue about the abacus, I knew exactly what it was. So we stopped to look on the internet for a tourism type indicator to see if there was anything special at The Bund with an abacus and the only thing we could find was three large banks. One of the guys at the Hilton said that the Bank of China was where we wanted to go, so there we went. We then spent 40 minutes looking for a woman with an abacus at the Bank of China - which everybody, whether they were British or local, supported the idea that there was a woman with an abacus around this bank... It took us 40 minutes to finally say screw the bank and go out to the waterfront and start looking."

How do you feel about having come in last, especially since you were so close to making it?Sheila: "That was tough because the Chippendales had been on the first plane and it truly came down to a footrace right there at the end. It was really tough .That's the thing about walking away from the race - we were completely committed. We were so ready for all the great challenges and competing in this amazing adventure together. But as we walked away from the race, I think appreciating the country we live in and that we were walking away together and have this amazing relationship and this great life that we get to come home to helped. But we were very disappointed. It hurt!"

Rob: "I was pissed as hell! I was mad. I was really angry. I mean, we should have been there at the end on the last leg and we weren't and the only thing is, I told Sheila we shouldn't trust anybody. That's what ultimately makes me look back and go, 'Boy, what would I have done different?' I would have not in any way trusted anybody and kept to our own game."

Did you have any idea that you were going to arrive last or did you think there were still teams behind you?Sheila: "We thought there was another team. Will and Gary had told us they were still searching - which wasn't true, they lied to us. They were on their way to the signal tower and tried to deceive us to go towards the tower to look for the woman. We did not know on that footrace when we were so close and they passed us and came in ahead of us - we didn't know until we got to the mat that we were the last to arrive."

Rob: "There was nothing we could have done. We got the clue, got out our map, asked people about the signal tower and saw it on the map. We started running and we ran as hard and fast as we could. It was about a half mile and they passed us in the last 100 yards. You know, those guys, they're young, athletic and they came charging up on us and there they were, running by us. I took Sheila's pack and we ran harder, but there was about 150 yards and they stayed ahead of us. That was it, that was that. We thought Will and Gary were still out there because just 15 minutes earlier they had told us they didn't have a clue and that someone told them and they took off running. It was when we were halfway down there that Sheila said we have to stop and think about this."

Did you learn anything new about one another while in the game?Rob: "I don't think so - the only thing I would say is that there was a confirmation that I've made a great choice in who my life partner is going to be. Did I know anything? Yes, that I made the right choice."

What's tougher, The Amazing Race or planning a wedding?Sheila: "For me, it would be The Amazing Race. Rob was our wedding planner and he planned a beautiful wedding at a lodge in Wisconsin and we married August 5. It was a beautiful day and Rob did all of the planning. It was heartbreaking, to be honest, to be the first ones out - it's horrifying. But we get to come back to our beautiful life in an amazing country and we have a partner next to us that we love and we're looking forward to a life together so it's not so bad."

Rob: "The wedding will be a highlight of my life, for sure. But The Amazing Race, you know... as a many-time world champion, losing is not something that I take well and it may have been something that taught me one thing - how to accept defeat with humility and not let it affect who I am and what I do. Being in The Amazing Race makes me more successful. Losing it does not make me less successful."

What's next for the two of you?Sheila: "We opened a diner theatre last year in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee - it's just before the entrance to the national park. The dinner show theatre seats almost 1,000 people and tells the story of the Smokey Mountain National Park."

Rob: "The story is about how they threw the lumberjacks out to make it a park. The lumberjacks were very competitive and they actually used guns to compete to see who would get the land. We tell that story. But you know, my life has been about promoting lumberjack sports and telling the history of the American lumberjack. I've been doing it for 30 years and I'm only halfway done telling the story. We're going to recreate log drives and put them on film, which has never been done before. We're expanding the sport worldwide and we're working on projects like this every day as part of our true life. My life has been like an amazing race and it's going to continue to be like The Amazing Race. We're just thrilled to have had the opportunity to actually do it."

The Amazing Race season 21 debuted on Sunday night with a dramatic flourish, requiring the participating pairs to rappel off a Pasadena, California, bridge to get their first clue, then play ping pong with a youth champion and eat frog fallopian tubes in Shanghai, China. Engaged couple Rob Scheer, 52, and Sheila Castle, 44, were the unlucky team to be sent home first and ETonline is catching up with the disappointed lumberjack and retail manager.

ETOnline: What made you decide to compete on The Amazing Race?Rob: Well, you know I think for me, you know I've lead an adventurous life and a very athletic life and, you know, you see The Amazing Race and you think, I would think a lot of people think, 'Oh, I want to do that,' but I truly look at it as being an opportunity to challenge me in a way that I truly, you know, I look for those kind of challenges worldwide. I mean I want to go out there and conquer the world. So it made me want to do 'The Amazing Race'!

ETOnline: What kind of challenge were you most afraid that they would throw at you?Sheila: Well for me, it would be heights, 'cause I actually am scared of heights. Then, can you believe it, the first thing [was] rappelling off that bridge? But I have to brag on myself, and I remind Rob of that often, I did not hesitate. You know, he [was] like, 'The one thing you can't do if we get a challenge like that, like bungee jumping or something like that, climbing up a skyscraper—just don't hesitate.' And as soon as they said, you know we were clear to go, I went. And of course Rob, who's really not intimidated by heights or anything, he of course went right with me.

Rob: The only thing that I was worried about was navigation error. You know, one of those simple, simple errors that adds time to your race. … And of course right away in LA, we made a navigation error that cost us from being on the first plane but, that was my worry.

ETOnline: Having done the race, what would you say was the hardest part?Sheila: Well, for us I think it was being eliminated the first leg. … It was really, you know it was heartbreaking for us 'cause we were just so committed, we wanted to go the whole way, and I think our motivation truly was about just being in the race in this ultimate competition, I mean this ultimate adventure, and we were just so on board for it.

Rob: We were so ready. You know my biggest disappointment was that, you know, in the first leg, I was waiting for that big challenge, like a big challenge [like scaling] up the side of a large building or [building] something or, [using] our physical endurance, and I [ended up playing] ping pong with a little kid and Sheila ate fallopian tubes. I was really looking forward, [hoping that there would be a bottleneck], and [we'd] be able to jump out in front again, and in true race style they threw that curve at us, and the little mistakes we made ended up being hugely costly. You know, we looked for the abacus in a bank… on the Bund. We should've been running up and down the Bund for an hour like everybody else was. But we spent forty-five minutes looking through these three banks, and when we finally got out on the Bund where it was, we found it fairly quickly. You know, my biggest disappointment was I didn't get to do the challenges that I really prepared myself for. You know the big, hard challenges.

Sheila: Obviously, he did not eat frog fallopian tubes because those were pretty big hard challenges, I'm gonna just say it. You know 'cause, especially when your mind, you just couldn't let your mind think about what you were eating.

Rob: I heard they taste like marshmallows.

ETOnline: I was going to ask you, what did they taste like? And were they sweetened somehow?Sheila: There wasn't really a flavor, or maybe it's 'cause I was just like, you know, whole mouth just swallow, but I don't recall a flavor. It was the texture was just so disgusting it was really, it was challenging.

ETOnline: Did you get the impression that was something that was commonly eaten [in Shanghai], or was it kind of unusual?Sheila: I think that it was even unusual there, because did you see some of those people and their horrified faces? I'm like thinking that was not just a regular dessert. I think even the locals felt sorry for us.

ETOnline: Especially since putting it in a papaya shell doesn't really change what it is.Sheila: Exactly, they're pretty but…

Rob: Hey that wasn't so bad, Sheila, come on, you did not have to play ping pong with a kid with a pan, I mean, let's be serious okay? I was traumatized, I mean this eight-year old Chinese kid has got a pan, and I gotta, you know, I gotta beat him in ping pong, you know? That's trauma.

ETOnline: That looked really hard because most people don't play ping pong regularly, and that kid probably dedicates his life to it.Sheila: Yeah, that's why I was like 'Rob, you take this one…”

Rob: Yeah it was like… his third serve that I got him, so I was pretty happy about that, 'cause we got out of there right away.

Sheila: We were feeling good when we left there. It was like right away out of there and you know I think I did the fallopian tubes really fast, so we're again feeling really good. … Then we headed towards the Bund and then the bank happened.

ETOnline: I wanted to ask you guys how your wedding planning is coming, or if you've already gotten married?Sheila: We got married August 5th up here in Hayward, Wisconsin, in a beautiful lodge on the lake, it was really beautiful.

ETOnline: Great, congratulations. Do you think you'll apply any lessons you learned in the race in your married life?Sheila: Rob is a very successful, determined man. When he sets his mind to something, you know it's really hard to change it, and he's direct, and you know it can be challenging sometimes, and I think the one thing we did find on the race about our relationship is truly, regardless of what we're doing, it comes first. And you know we didn't have any conflict, I think we worked together very well, and we're good partners and that's our life plan.

ETOnline: Watching Amazing Race, it seems like it either strengthens couples or tears them apart, so you seem like you did well.Rob: Yeah, you know, I took away from it this one thing [that] life is, first of all we're amazingly blessed, not only to live in this country, to have our health, but to have a person in my life like Sheila, I just realized just how truly lucky we are. But no matter where you are in the world, if you have a person that you really are truly blessed to have in your life, it doesn't matter what's thrown at you, at the end of the day, you're happy, you're safe, you can move on and so as depressing as it was to lose that race, Sheila and I both looked at each other and said our life starts again today. This won't haunt either one of us because we have each other and that's what counts.

ETOnline: Of all the teams, which one do you think will win?Sheila: My favorite, and [the team] I absolutely adore, is Trey and Lexi. You know, just really sweet, American young kids living the dream, and real sweet kids. I mean we both just fell for them right away. I mean obviously they're athletic, very fast, very smart, and they're good people.

Rob: There's three or four teams that can win, no question about it ... but both of us agree Trey and Lexi, even though they are young, they have what it took to win, and then we immediately pulled for them and we want them to win.

Marionete:
I don't think the rest of the race would be as fun & competitive if the Chippendales had gone instead of Rob & Sheila, but I just feel like they shouldn't have been the first ones to go :( A NEL, maybe? Although there already was a first leg NEL in TAR15 (+ a China leg as well) and TAR19, so I knew that was roughly possible...

georgiapeach:
CBS Interview:

Elimination Interview: Rob & Sheila Posted on Oct 2, 2012 10:05am

We asked Rob and Sheila questions that YOU (the fans!) sent in via social media! See what they had to say about their time in the game below.

Emily K: What country did you wish you had gotten to see?Rob: I wanted to go to India.Sheila: Probably Sweden. It was between that and Italy. I just have an attraction to Sweden. I'm just attracted to the culture and people.

Jon C: What is the worst part about being eliminated on the first leg? Rob: Come on. The worst part is you are first off. The self-awareness that you failed. No matter how successful or how capable you view yourself there will come a time when you have to have humility and doing it in front of that many people is tough. But, we tried and we did the best we could. Sheila: It is humbling. For me, I felt like I let people down. Everyone is so excited to watch and to be out on the first leg is hard.

Scott P: Do either of you put blame on the other about the outcome? Rob: Oh yeah - it is all her fault. I think we both know that there are things we both could have done differently to not have been differently. We both could have prevented being the last to the mat. There were opportunities for both of us to change the outcome, but we haven't brought it up to each other. If you are going to be a team that blames each other than you are not going to be a very good team on the Amazing Race. Sheila: Or in life!

Benita M: What did you do to get ready for the race when you found out that you both were picked? Sheila: I'm really scared of heights and there is usually always height challenges so Rob made me do bungee jumping. He basically bushed me off.Rob: Yeah -I pushed her. Sheila was afraid of heights so we dealt with that and we ran daily. I also competed in lumberjack competitions daily. We also spent a lot of time trying to decide what should be in our backpack.

Kamalia R: What do you guys think your team did wrong? Rob: We made two mistakes. The first was navigational. We had studied a map of LA and the freeway system and we made a calculated decision to get on an interstate that we thought would get us on the 101 in LA but it didn't connect. That was really a strategic thing that we did wrong. The second thing was we should not have made an alliance with Gary and Will.